Gina

Been thinking about the Duet WiFi but it certainly isn't cheap at the best part of £150 when you add carriage and VAT. Looks very good though - everything in one unit I gather, effectively replacing Arduino Mega, RAMPS and RPi it would seem. I like that - cuts down on connections giving higher reliability. If I were to get one (or two ) I could use the redundant Mega and RAMPS to drive my weather station analogue wall display. Selling my redundant astro gear may provide funds

Chip soldered to breakout board

Looking into soldering the direction sensor chip onto the breakout board and the connections taking data from the MLX90316 Rotary Position Sensor IC datasheet. Below is a photo of the chip on the breakout board (not soldered yet) as close and well focused as I could manage followed by screenshots from the datasheet.

Here's a modified cross-sectional diagram showing the magnet attached to the bolt head of the axle with the sensor chip and breakout board above it plus a close-up photo of the breakout board sat on top of the magnet & holder. For an idea of scale, the ball bearings are 10mm OD.

Magnet holder finished.

I'm not going to attempt to solder the SOIC-8 chip onto the breakout board tonight - I'll leave that for daylight and a freshed head May design the printed parts though and print them though. Already started with the magnet holder actually

Here's a photo of the wind vane assembly with axle, bearings and damper disc balanced on top of a pot. I'm working on the magnet holder ATM, trying to get the hole sizes right

Arrived

Yippee!

SOIC-8 breakout boards, filament and spacers for the wind vane axle are out for delivery

That's it

I started with a weather station from Maplin - the ubiquitous Fine Offset model. Had all sorts of problems with spikes in the temperature graph and also with the mechanical reliability generally. Tended to shed cups from the anemometer, seized up, etc. I bought a second one but that gave up too so decided to design and build my own. Initially based on the Arduino and 1-wire devices and several arrangements of optical Gray code wind direction sensor with 16 states. This latest version is almost a complete rebuild though I may keep the Arduino data logging system as that seems to work well. I'm hoping to get the weather data on my web site again eventually plus the ASC images.

Ah yes... Patience is a virtue...

Ah yes - proof of the pudding and all that...

Yes, Hall effect sensors are much better than reed switches as they don't influence the motion of the magnet. I found a reed switch stopped the anemometer rotation below about 2mph or so. I have three tiny Neodymium magnets in mine with a Hall effect sensor and it works down to 1mph wind speed and produces 1pps at that speed. Apart from magnets, Hall device and the bearing it's all 3D printed from ABS. I bought items from Hobby Boards a few years ago. I see your wind direction sensor produces an analogue output, did you have any problem with the calibration around the 359/0 changeover? I considered an analogue output Hall sensor chip but though of that problem and went for a digital output.

I've never had to replace a heatsink (finned item). To avoid filament jamming in the heatsink, make sure the cooling fan is running until the filament cools well below 100C or lower for some filaments with low melting point. Also, I've found it worthwhile buying good quality filament. I recommend Rigid Ink. I used to get all sorts of problems with cheap filament. I've also found that it's worth paying the extra for R3D products - the quality is superb and good design. Yes, that piezoelectric device looks pretty good. Makes for a neater machine than my conductive sensors and copper film pads where the test points are for auto bed levelling.

Oh yes, both those are well in the forefront of my mind, both for this and my all sky camera. Nice long skirts to stop driving rain and I have a spray I use to keep moisture off the electronics (no not WD40). Forget the name ATM.

Weather station wind sensors. Cross-section view and general appearance.

This diagram shows how the rotation sensor may be mounted together with the bearings and axle system with all the parts designed for 3D printing without needing support material. The pedestal for the anemometer will go over this and the three wires for the Hall sensor in the anemometer can also go through the hole in the casing where the rotary sensor wires go.

A "prettier" design

I've never found a reason for that.

Breakout boards from Amazon are 11.12mm x 10.38mm which gives a diagonal of sqr-rt(123.6544+107.7444) = 15.2mm. That will easily fit inside a reasonable sized pedestal for the anemometer.

Looks like the casing will have to be in several parts. The rotation sensor chip and its breakout board can be housed in the pedestal that supports the anemometer making a rather fatter body than the original but permitting a good length for the axle for the wind vane.

I'm thinking of a considerable change in the design of the casing for the wind sensors. The anemometer pillar was designed to bolt onto the aluminium saucepan lid and now that I'm not using that there is no reason to keep that design. It would make more sense to have a proper combined design approach and a mainly one piece casing except for an access plate or cover.

Failing finding the breakout boards I have ordered some more from Amazon together with more filament. Due to arrive Monday. That should make the ones I already have turn up